Vinyl flooring is the second most common material used for flooring next to carpet. It’s an excellent choice when deciding on a flooring material for your new home or home renovation project. As you conduct research into the type of vinyl flooring you want for your home, you’ll come across the fact that there are two types of vinyl flooring: vinyl planks and vinyl tiles. Here, we’ll dive into the differences between vinyl planks vs. vinyl tiles. So, you will have all the information you need to make an informed decision to design a beautiful home.

Similarities and Differences

For starters, both vinyl planks and vinyl tiles offer many of the same benefits. Both types of vinyl flooring are waterproof and can be installed via adhesive or as floating floors. They also both feature the same durability against heat, scratching, cracks, and general wear. Vinyl tiles and planks both come in pre-cut pieces. These are installed by arranging the pieces across your desired area, unlike vinyl sheeting. Both offer the same installation simplicity when compared to other types of flooring such as carpet, tiles, hardwood floors, etc. Lastly, both offer an excellent way to save on costs without sacrificing aesthetics.

The vinyl thickness and finishing can be exactly the same. In fact, vinyl tiles and vinyl floors are almost identical except for one key difference: their shape.

Shape

Vinyl tiles tend to come in the shape of squares or approximately square rectangles. Conversely, vinyl planks tend to come in rectangles with one side much longer than the other. Albeit a seemingly small difference, this results in very different uses for vinyl tiles vs. vinyl planks. Vinyl tiles tend to be designed to replicate ceramic tiles, stone, or slate or feature abstract patterns. On the other hand, vinyl planks tend to be designed to replicate all hardwood floors including maple, oak, hickory, teak, fir, pine, and any others you might want in your home.

The difference in shape may also result in some minor practical differences between vinyl tiles vs. planks. Vinyl tiles can be easier to transport as long planks may be difficult to fit in the back of smaller vehicles. Additionally, vinyl planks require slightly more care when arranging them on your floor. They are typically arranged with a particular offset in order to replicate the look of traditional hardwood floors. Whereas vinyl tiles are generally arranged in a grid pattern, so no offsets are needed to be measured.

Space

The choice to use vinyl tiles vs. vinyl planks usually depends on the space in your home that they’re being considered for. Vinyl planks are almost never selected for use in areas of your home which come into contact with water. As mentioned previously, vinyl planks and vinyl tiles both offer the same levels of waterproofing capability. However, the difference has more to do with which traditional material is commonly used in different parts of a home.

Stone or ceramic tiles are generally used in bathrooms, showers, and laundry rooms. This is because they offer more waterproofing when compared to hardwood flooring. Although not a practical consideration when using vinyl floors, many people try to maintain a more traditional aesthetic appearance when deciding on which vinyl flooring to use in their home. Another location in which vinyl tiles may be preferred over vinyl planks is in outdoor settings such as balconies or patios as these are also areas which traditionally do not feature hardwood floors.

Design

An interesting design possibility that vinyl flooring offers is the ability to combine the look of stone, ceramic tiles, abstract patterns, and hardwood flooring in ways which would be impractical with traditional materials. For example, one could easily decide to place vinyl stone tiles around the perimeter of a room with vinyl hardwood planks without any change to the process or having to hire multiple contractors with different skill sets. The sky really is the limit when deciding how to design the floors of your home with vinyl tiles and planks.

However you decide to incorporate vinyl flooring into your home, be it using vinyl tiles or vinyl planks, King of Floors in Surrey will provide you with high quality options and assist you in making the best choice so you can enjoy years of comfort with the right floors for your home.